Music for Remembrance: Duruflé Requiem & Other Works

Featuring

James O'Donnell
Christine Rice
Roderick Williams
Caroline Dearnley
Robert Quinney
William Balkwill

Britten Sinfonia
Westminster Abbey Choir
Maurice Duruflé
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Philip Moore
Herbert Howells
John Tavener

Did you know?

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Composer Biography

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whose prayers are set to music by Philip Moore, was a German pastor and theologian executed in a Nazi concentration camp in April 1945 for his opposition to Hitler's regime.

Cultural Impact

Sir John Tavener's music, including his "Song for Athene," touched hearts worldwide when it was sung at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, in Westminster Abbey in 1997.

Compositional Technique

Maurice Duruflé's Requiem is unique for its use of Gregorian Chant, with each of its nine movements inspired by plainsong melodies from the traditional Catholic liturgy.

Composition History

Herbert Howells's "Take him, earth, for cherishing" was commissioned as a tribute to President John F. Kennedy and premiered at a memorial service on the first anniversary of his assassination.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Duruflé's Requiem, while rooted in plainsong, reflects "the anguish of man faced with the mystery of his final end," rather than being an ethereal work detached from human concerns.

Historical Context

This album features memorial music composed in England and France in the shadow of the two World Wars, reflecting Westminster Abbey's role as a focus of national remembrance.

Composer Biography

Ralph Vaughan Williams, one of the composers on this album, served in France and Greece during 1916-18 with the Royal Army Medical Corps and Royal Artillery.